Erie's Mercy Center for Women looks back on 25 years

Monday

The transitional housing program offers help to women and children who are dealing with homelessness in Erie County.

DayNisha Dykes struggled to keep paying her bills for months.

A stay-at-home mom, Dykes had suddenly become responsible for her family's expenses when domestic violence led her to seek a protection-from-abuse order against her ex-boyfriend. She began working odd jobs and offering rides in her car to make some money.

She still got behind on rent. By March of 2018, Dykes, 22, was homeless and living in her car with her three young children. She was pregnant with her fourth child.

After a few weeks, she decided to call an organization a friend had told her about: the Mercy Center for Women.

"I needed that support, really," Dykes said. "I'm like, I'm going to do just do it, especially for the kids, too. The car situation was not OK for them at all."

With her admission to the Mercy Center, Dykes joined the 1,500 women the program has served since it opened its doors in 1994.

This year, the Mercy Center is celebrating 25 years of offering Erie's homeless women and children shelter and community while they find more permanent housing. The organization will hold a gala Oct. 5 at the Bayfront Convention Center to mark the anniversary.

The transitional housing program, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy, is designed to help women rebuild and prepare to live on their own, said Jennie Hagerty, the center's executive director.

"This is more of a community atmosphere due to how the Sisters of Mercy structured this mission," Hagerty said. "Every night the women eat together. The programs that the women are involved in, these are programs that they all participate in."

The programs include classes in self-esteem, healthy relationships and communication skills. The women who live at the center, at 1039 E. 27th St., also learn parenting skills and work to improve their finances.

Working toward independence

For Dykes, the center has provided a sense of security she lacked before.

After living at the Mercy Center for nearly a year, she's learned how to access benefits, such as subsidized housing under Section 8, that will help her live independently while still being able to care for her four children, who are 5, 3, 1 and 3 months old.

She's built a resume so that she's ready to apply for jobs when the time comes.

"I have everything already set," she said. "It's going to be less stressful and I can actually apply for the better jobs that I didn't really have time to even apply for before."

Nearly half of the women who stayed at the Mercy Center in 2017 and 2018 were fleeing domestic violence, Hagerty said.

Dykes could no longer afford rent on her own after she got a protection-from-abuse order against her ex-boyfriend.

"Something was always getting missed," she said of her bills during that time. "I had to sacrifice something every time."

After she missed rent too many times, Dykes said, she was locked out of her east Erie home with only one bag of clothing for her and her children. The Mercy Center provided them with clothing and other necessities when they arrived.

Hagerty said she has seen an increase in the number of women who come to the Mercy Center because of domestic violence. Of the women who stayed there in 2017 and 2018, 76 percent had experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives, she said.

All of the women who lived there during that time had a mental health diagnosis, she said, and 36 percent were also dealing with drug or alcohol abuse.

"We're structured in a way where they are together working on the same areas to make them stronger," Hagerty said. "Whether you're recovering from addiction or domestic violence, self-esteem is something everybody can benefit from."

It's common for homelessness to go hand-in-hand with mental illness or domestic violence, said Sean O'Neill, mental health supervisor at Erie County Care Management. His organization oversees Erie County's Coordinated Entry program, which helps connect homeless people with housing resources.

"It's such an enormously difficult position to be in," O'Neill said. "You're without someplace to sleep, so you don't have any foundation on which to regroup."

He said the Mercy Center focuses on connecting women with resources that can help with mental health and addiction issues as they prepare to live on their own.

"They come with many, many challenges with them, and the alleviation of those challenges during their stay at the Mercy Center seems to be very successful," he said.

Women who apply to live at the Mercy Center go through two interviews to determine if they're a good fit for the program, Hagerty said. Women must be 18 or older and must refrain from using drugs and alcohol while they live at the center.

'You give and you also receive'

Nikki Knight, 40, came to the Mercy Center after a series of deaths in her family left her in a deep depression.

"I was crying all the time," she said. "I knew it was something that wasn't right with me."

She didn't have a place of her own to live, so she turned to the Mercy Center to find a better environment.

"It's a comforting place away from home," Knight said. "It's definitely good to have a place like that."

She has worked to improve her mental health, she said, and learned more about depression during her stay. Knight is also highly involved in the daily chores required to keep the Mercy Center running, Hagerty said, including preparing meals for all of the residents.

"I think you give and you also receive, so I definitely think it goes hand in hand," Knight said.

All of the women who live at the Mercy Center are expected to help out with chores and preparing dinners. Each woman contributes 30 percent of her food stamps allocation to the Mercy Center in order to pay for food supplied through the Second Harvest Food Bank, Hagerty said.

Those who are working must also turn over about a third of their earnings to the Mercy Center, which puts the money in a savings account and returns it when the woman graduates, Hagerty said.

Residents can stay for up to a year while they take classes and seek permanent housing. They can also receive up to six months of case-management services after they leave the Mercy Center, Hagerty said.

"We are still actively a part of her life until she is able to say, 'I can do this on my own now,'" Hagerty said.

Patricia Thompson, 55, has lived at the Mercy Center since October, when she was in the process of being evicted from her Millcreek Township apartment. She struggled to maintain full-time employment and couldn't keep up with paying rent for the apartment she'd lived in for nine years.

"When I first came here, I was mad, sad, angry from losing my apartment," she said. She credited the programming at the Mercy Center with helping her recover from the emotional pain of losing her home.

"Time is healing the wounds and that's good," she said. "Having a warm roof over your head, having a hot cup of coffee, having a warm meal to eat, that's a blessing."

Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNoneill.

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